What is the Department of Education?

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During his campaign, Donald Trump promised several times that he would dismantle the US Department of Education. So today we wanted to explore what such a dismantling would look like, as well as what the DoED does in the first place. Turns out, while the Department does an awful lot of things, there is much for which it is criticized that it does not do. Taking us through its creation, its history, and its powers is Adam Laats, professor of Education at Binghamton University. Link to our episodes on School Lunch here and here. And here are some good resources for anyone who wants to know a little more about Jonestown. My 8th grade report is, sadly, unavailable. https://www.npr.org/2017/04/11/523348069/nearly-40-years-later-jonestown-offers-a-lesson-in-demagoguery https://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/18/archives/jonestown-the-survivors-story-jonestown.html CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I do have a quick interruption that's not related to education.
0:03.3	Is there any chance in your room you have a different chair?
0:06.4	Oh, this one's squeaky.
0:07.7	Yeah, yeah.
0:09.7	You don't have to.
0:10.8	You got time? I'll get a different too.
0:13.6	Look at that old chair.
0:15.6	Shut off.
0:17.8	You're listening to Civics 101.
0:19.5	I'm Nick Capadice.
0:20.6	I'm Hannah McCarthy.
0:21.7	And today we are talking about the United States Department of Education.
0:26.0	Who is that in that squeaky chair just now?
0:28.3	That was repeat Civics 101 guest Adam Latz.
0:32.2	Yeah, yeah.
0:32.7	I'm Adam Lutz.
0:33.6	I'm a professor of education and history at SUNY Binghamton.
0:36.9	Adam got another chair, by the way, so we were all said.
0:39.7	All right, how's this one?
0:40.6	Fantastic. I would like it if you came in within like a series of progressively older chairs.
0:47.4	Enough about chairs, Hannah. Let us talk about the Department of Education.
0:51.8	And some quick abbreviation clearing up. When we say the DOE,
	...

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